For some, it’s relatively easy to make the grade. The powerful are natural newsmakers. Their big decisions, whether good or bad, are hugely consequential. Others are ad hoc newsmakers. A notable, inspirational achievement, or a fall from grace, catapults them into the public consciousness.

Then there are those who never expected to be noticed, much less make the world sit up and take notice.

Such a group of people has commanded our attention this year: the survivors of alleged abuse, decades ago, at the Home for Colored Children in Dartmouth. Their simple yet momentous act of coming forward is significant. It takes Olympian fortitude and perseverance to make that decision to confront the past, to allow your deepest pain to become front-page news and to brave the long, uncertain voyage of a class-action suit.

While some former residents speak well of their experience at the home, others describe a reign of terror — of sexual violence and exploitation, of physical and psychological abuse and shocking neglect — perpetrated mostly by staff.

The failure of many individuals and institutions to act on what they knew is epic. Moving that monolith of indifference was largely left to a band of broken people. But they are accomplishing this herculean task and doing Nova Scotian society a great service in the process.

Courage begets courage. Who knows how many others will resolve to fight or denounce abuse because of these survivors?

For Tony Smith, Tracey Dorrington-Skinner, June Elwin, Theresa Allison, Harriet Johnson and Michael Beals — to name a few — the unimaginable happened when they were vulnerable children. As adults, there were other things beyond their imaginations, including the notion that the public would care about their plight, or that the day would come when they would see a modicum of justice.

We look forward to that good-news day.

And we hope for the day when their potential to become game-changers is realized — as they impact many individual lives and social attitudes as a whole.